


Batman Can't Be Batman Without Robin

by blazingblonde



Category: Suits (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Harvey Specter being Harvey Specter, Hurt Mike Ross, Puppy Analogy Mike Ross
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24717268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blazingblonde/pseuds/blazingblonde
Summary: Mike has been running himself ragged for Harvey and he's at his wit's end. So what happens when he starts to work for someone else in the firm to get Harvey to see what it's like to work without him?
Relationships: Mike Ross & Harvey Specter, Mike Ross/Rachel Zane
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

As Louis rounded the corner of the associate's bullpen, Mike was too preoccupied with the by-laws he was reading for Harvey's new case to see the rat faced man handing out folders. Well that was until a stack of about twelve landed on his desk.

"I want these done by the end of the day," Louis stated, before moving on to pass out the remainder of the files he was carrying. Mike didn't even have a chance to protest but he couldn't help but notice that all the other associates were only handed four to six files each, why was he getting double?

Just to make his morning worse, Harvey stalked up to his cubicle. "Have you found me anything in the by-laws yet to dismiss the case?"

Mike had stayed up all night, but yes he had managed to find something. "Yeah, here." Mike passed Harvey the two clauses that would support their claims.

Harvey surveyed the pages with a critical eye before looking back up at Mike. "This'll do," he said snapping the folder shut. "Now, do you know Tamworth Enterprises?"

No thank you, no gratitude. Just the next case. Yep, he loved working for Harvey sometimes. 

"Yeah, aren't they in charge of inspecting like half the bridges in New York?"

"Yes. We're suing them."

"Why?"

“Senior executives cut funding to line their own pockets.”

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to find me precedent to get a look at their financials and their emails."

"On it."

With one final glance, Harvey gave him a parting look as he headed out of the room. Mike put his head in his hands. He didn't want to disappoint Harvey or get reprimanded by Louis, but he couldn't remember the last time he had had a decent night sleep.

To clear his head, Mike headed to the break room to grab himself a cup of coffee before he got to work, but much to his luck, as he went to go sit back down at his cubicle he found Kyle and Greg were laughing at something on it.

"What do you want?" Mike snapped, taking a seat.

"Oh Greg and I couldn't help but notice that you're quite far behind on your work Ross," said Kyle, who was indicating to the massive stack of files Louis had just dumped on his desk.

"Yeah," Greg piped in, "is the golden boy slipping?"

The two associates laughed, while Mike set his coffee down. "Louis just gave me all these files this morning," Mike spat. "He obviously thinks I'm capable of getting more work done on my own, then the two of you put together." Mike had counted and with Greg and Kyle's files together it only totalled 9 files.

Neither of the associates standing by Ross's desk had any quip to counter what he said, so Mike continued, "So if you wouldn't mind. I actually have work to do."

Mike placed his earphones in, ending the conversation. He didn't notice the others stalk away as he picked up the first of the files.

It was 2pm by the time Mike had finished Louis's work, now he needed to start on Harvey's. As Mike went to drop the cases off in Louis's office, he got stopped. "Not so fast Ross." Mike turned back from the door, "I need you to go through the Roland Briefs. They're waiting for you in conference room C."

The Roland Briefs? He couldn't be serious? Mike knew that case had been huge, meaning there would be a lot of briefs to proof. He didn't have the time, he still needed to look through precedents for Harvey.

"Louis can't you get one of the other associates to do it, it's just that I need to do something for Harv-"

Mike didn't even get to finish saying his boss's name, as Louis cut him off. "I don't care what you're doing for Harvey. These briefs need to be proofed and I'm asking you to do it. You work for me as well Ross, in case you've forgotten."

"How could I ever forget that?" Mike mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"On it."

Just as Mike was about to exit Louis's office, the senior partner called, "Oh and I need them finished by tomorrow."

Mike had to clench his fists to restrain himself from going back in there and taking his anger out on Louis. He didn't get it. Just because he was Harvey's associate made Louis treat him so poorly. Just because he was a fast worker, did not mean he was required to do triple the work as other associates.

But knowing that it would be a pointless argument to engage in, he swallowed his pride and headed to the library. Harvey wasn't due back from court until 4, so he still had time to find precedent before he got back.

According to Mike, 4 o'clock rolled around far too quickly, and before he knew it, Harvey was strolling up to him. "How'd it go?" Mike asked, before Harvey could ask him about the Tamworth case.

Harvey had a smug grin on his face, which could only mean one thing, "We won. It was dismissed."

"Great." Mike said, trying to suppress a yawn.

"Now, have you found me any precedents yet?" Harvey was looking at Mike expectantly, just as he always did. Mike knew that Harvey had higher expectations of him. He knew that if Harvey assigned him something, he expected it to be done in the quarter of the time it would take an average associate to complete it. Usually he thrived on pleasing Harvey, but as of late, it hasn’t been as gratifying. If anything it’s been more exhausting. 

"Yes and no." He finally answered. 

Harvey raised an eyebrow at him, "Okay?"

"I've found grounds for us to get their financials but I can't find anything to obtain their emails."

Harvey sighed, "Okay, well at least that's a start. Keep looking, it's got to be here somewhere. Our hearing is at 3 tomorrow, so just make sure you've found something by then?"

Mike nodded, "On it."

It wasn't until late into the night, when Mike finally found grounds for them to acquire the emails of the Tamworth board members. Yes! He got up and put away the books before heading back to his desk. To his surprise Rachel was sitting in his seat.

"Hey," she said, smiling lovingly.

"Hey,” he sighed. 

"Oh no,” Her eyes were filled with concern as she slowly rounded the table to wrap her arms around his neck. “What's wrong?" 

"I'm just really swamped with work at the moment."

"When is that not the case," she tried to joke but Mike wasn't laughing. "When do you think you'll be done?"

Mike shrugged, "I still have to proof the Roland Briefs, so I don't think I'll be getting any sleep tonight."

Rachel pouted pulling herself closer, "No Mike! You pulled an all-nighter here last night, I won't let you do it again."

"I don't have much choice. Louis made it quite clear that I needed to get it done by tomorrow and I was too busy doing something for Harvey that I haven't even started yet. So as much as I would like to go home with you tonight, I can't."

"Fine, then I'm staying too. We'll finish quicker if we work together."

This time it was Mike's turn to shake his head and pull her closer. "No. You have an exam tomorrow. I'm sorry but I'm not going to let you."

"It's just one exam," she tried to reason.

"Which counts for half of your grade this semester."

Rachel rolled her eyes, she knew he was right, "Fine..." she dragged out the word, "I'll bring you a fresh suit in the morning but if you even consider doing this tomorrow, I’m tying you to the bed.”

Mike cracked a smile at that, “We’ll have to see about that.” He challenged, the smirk never leaving his face.

She sealed their conversation with a kiss. Mike knew that meant it was the end of their talk but that didn't stop him from pushing her up against his cubicle wall, desperately needing the distraction.

Rachel pulled away first, "As much as I'd like to," she breathed, "you have work to do."

"I know,” he sighed and snuck in one final peck before they parted ways, one heading towards the elevators, the other to a long night in conference room C.


	2. Chapter 2

Mike woke with a start. He must have dozed off.

He rubbed his tired eyes with his hands before looking up from the multitude of papers to see Rachel standing before him. "Morning," she whispered, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey." Mike croaked, his voice hoarse.

"I've got your suit," she said pointing to where she had left it on the table. "And since you probably didn't have dinner or breakfast, I got you coffee and bagels."

Mike couldn't help but smile at his girlfriend, she was truly amazing. "God I love you."

It was still quite early in the morning, so she leant down for a kiss, before pulling away to look into Mike's eyes. "I know," she teased, leaving the coffee and bagels on the table.

"So how much did you get through?" she asked, after Mike had finished the first bagel.

He shrugged, his mouth still full. "Not enough," he admitted.

"Which means?"

"I got through about half."

"And when did Louis say he needed them done by?" she asked.

"He never really pinpointed a time of the day, but I'm guessing the sooner the better." Rachel nodded in agreement, "Is Harvey in yet?"

"No, when I walked past his office, only Donna was there," Rachel said.

"Can you do me a favour please? I never had time to give this to Harvey," he said, handing her a manilla folder with the precedents he had found, "could you drop that by Donna?"

"Of course, can I do anything else to help?"

Mike smiled at the concern in her voice. "No, that's all, but Rachel thank you. Seriously, I don't say it enough. Thank you."

Rachel blushed at the compliment but made her way over to Mike once again, wrapping her arms around his neck. She leaned in close, whispering in his ear, “You’d do the same for me.”

Mike smiled at her words, just as she pulled him in for one final kiss. She left shortly after, allowing for Mike to get back to work.

It was 10am, when Mike got his first glimpse of Harvey that morning. By this time, he had changed suits, downed two more coffees and was very close to finishing the Roland Briefs. But even in his sleep deprived state, Mike could tell that he was pissed.

"I have been trying to reach you for the past ten minutes, why haven't you been answering?"

As if on cue, his phone rang again. He could barely hear it since it was buried under piles and piles of briefs. "I'm sorry," he lamely said. "What do you need?"

"They pushed up our hearing, we need to leave."

Without question, Mike stood up from his seat, disregarding the Roland Briefs (he could finish them when he got back), and swung his messenger bag over his shoulder once again. He rushed after Harvey, who was already four paces ahead of him.

"Why did they push up the hearing?" Mike finally asked, once they were in the elevators.

"My guess is they wanted to give us less time to find evidence."

"But why bother?"

Harvey turned to him, giving him an incredulous look, "Think of it like this. They're nervous we'll find something to support our claims, meaning they don't want us to. They have something to hide. And at least now we know we're targeting the right place."

When the pair got out of the building, Ray was waiting for them outside. Harvey hopped in while Mike skirted around the back of the car.

As they were on route to the courthouse, Mike could feel the tiredness of his two all-nighters creeping up to him. Not having to refine his focus on anything but the passing cars was reminding his brain that he needed sleep.

Every time his eyes were shut for more than a second, the usual car horn would jolt him awake. Harvey was giving him weird looks, so when they pulled up to the courthouse, Mike was more than happy to stretch his legs.

The hearing went quickly. The defence had little to block Harvey's arguments, they weren't expecting him to pull up the facts Mike had found. The judge granted them access to Tamworth's financials and corporate emails.

"Did you see their lawyer when I brought up that precedent?" Harvey asked, "He wasn't expecting it. He didn't want us to find it."

"But now we have the files, what are they going to do?"

"I don't know, but I need you to go through the financials to see if the money adds up."

"What about the emails?" Mike asked.

"Them too. We need to make sure the claims support all the plaintiffs' stories."

So not only did Mike have to rifle through boxes upon boxes of emails, he also had to find the embezzled money. "And what are you doing?" He asked, slightly annoyed that he was getting stuck with most of the grunt work.

Harvey smirked at Mike, "I have a lead on a new witness."

As they pulled up to Pearson Specter, Harvey said, "I'm getting the files delivered to my office, Donna will let you know when they're there." Mike nodded. Ray pulled away from the curb, as Harvey went to go sweet-talk his new witness.

Mike made a quick stop at a hotdog stand for some early lunch before heading back up into the office. The hearing had distracted him, but now he had to finish proofing the Roland Briefs before Louis bit his head off.

He rushed over to conference room C, everything was just as he had left it. He only had one more box left. Hopefully he'd get them done before Harvey got back. To his luck, he managed to do just that and went to deliver them to Louis's office. Louis wasn't there which was a bonus, so he left a quick message with Norma and headed to his cubicle.

He checked his watch on his way to the break room, he needed another coffee. Rachel would be walking into her exam soon, he sent her a 'good luck' text. She had been studying like crazy, he knew she was going to ace it.

He entered the break room, trying to think of something to do to celebrate with Rachel that night, her test would be over so she could relax.

As he was stewing on his thoughts, he got a call from Donna. The files had arrived.

"You're kidding me."

Mike had just walked into Harvey's office with Donna by his side.

"Apparently that's not even half of them," she said.

Mike turned to look at Donna opened mouthed, "You can't be serious."

To Mike's relief Donna cracked a grin, she was kidding. "No this is all of them, but still, it's a lot."

"And the financials?" Mike questioned, not too eager to hear the answer.

Donna pointed to six boxes on Harvey's desk. "And the rest are the emails."

"Great," Mike sighed.

Donna patted Mike's back, "Good luck pup," she said, making her exit.

By the time Harvey had returned, having successfully gotten another witness, Mike had already disregarded his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "Oh please, make yourself at home in my office."

Mike looked up from the papers he was reading to see Harvey staring at him, "Oh I'm sorry, I can go. Leave you to go through the rest of the files on your own."

Harvey glared at Mike before joining him by the couch, "Anything?"

Mike shook his head, "Not yet."

"And the financials?"

"On your desk. I found dated transactions. They correlated to business trips to Switzerland, but I haven't found the accounts yet." Harvey nodded, accepting the new information.

He pulled off his suit jacket, leaving him in his vest still, and grabbed one of the boxes of emails. Mike and Harvey set to work.

After many hours, the pair had made little progress. It was reaching 9pm when Rachel walked in. "Harvey, Jessica wants to see you." Harvey looked up from his papers and got up leaving the office, while Rachel went to sit next to Mike. He leaned into her touch, as she played with his messy hair.

"How's it going?"

Mike yawned, "Not too well, we haven't found much."

"You're coming home tonight right?"

Mike could hear the pleading tone in her voice, "I want to but if Harvey makes me go through the rest of the emails tonight I don't know."

"Just tell him you need the night to regenerate, he'll understand." Mike leant into the relaxing motions she was giving him. If law never worked out, she should totally consider becoming a masseuse.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see. Anyway enough worry about me, how'd the test go?"

Rachel seemed to light up at the question, "Really good. It was exactly what I studied for."

Mike placed a kiss on her forehead, "Well done. I'm really proud of you."

"Thank you."

Whilst Harvey was in Jessica's office, Mike didn't read anymore files. He didn't think his brain could function for much longer and he was enjoying the rest. When his boss came back in, Rachel broke away from Mike, standing up, "I'll see you at home."

"Bye," Mike called after her, before focusing on Harvey's set jaw. Was he mad?

"What's up? What did Jessica want?"

"Nothing you need to be concerned about," he snapped. "I'm calling it a night, tell me what you find in the morning."

As Harvey went to grab his jacket, it was Mike's only chance to ask if he could also leave to go home, "Can I call it a night as well?"

When Harvey spun around, Mike was not expecting to see such a condescending glare occupy his face, "No you can't. I want you to go through all these files by tomorrow, the sooner this case is wrapped up the better, do you understand?" Wow, Jessica must have said something about the case if he was this annoyed.

Mike stalled for a moment, he didn't think he could get through all the files especially in his current state of mind. "Please Harvey," he begged. "I haven't slept in two days."

That was obviously not the right thing to say, "I don't care Mike! You work for me. And when I tell you to do something, you god damn do it!"

Mike wasn't expecting such an outburst, whenever Harvey lost his cool at him, it freaked him out. He never knew what to say to him, it always felt like he was disappointing him and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Okay," Mike said in defeat, "I'll get it done."

"That's what I thought."


	3. Chapter 3

The night had gone slowly, as fast as Mike's brain was able to process information, his third all-nighter in a row was proving to be a hinderance, but to his utter surprise by the time Harvey walked back into his office, at a lazy 9am, cleanly shaven and showered, he had in fact found something.

As soon as Harvey greeted him, he knew his boss had already moved on from how he had behaved the previous night. Mike knew that even if Harvey thought that he'd been harsh, he would consider it a good thing because in the end, it got him what he wanted, and that was Mike looking through the boxes.

"Okay, what do you have?"

Mike explained his findings to his boss quickly. He had managed to find some incriminating emails that supported their claims but he hadn't had enough time to locate the accounts, "Good. Now I need you to find those accounts and I need you to find them today."

Wanting to start this morning off without another fight, Mike just nodded, "On it."

On his way back to his cubicle, he went passed Rachel's office. When she saw him, she sighed, crossing her arms.

"Hey," Mike tried to be cute, he could really use some comfort right now.

"Hi."

"How was your night?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, “It was terrible. I stayed up half the night waiting for you to come home and you never did. You said you would!"

Mike could see Rachel's anger lessening as her eyes became watery. "Oh shh, it's okay Rachel. I'm right here," he said. Mike pulled her into his arms, trying to calm her down.

"I don't like you not sleeping, it makes me worried."

"I know. I know. I'm trying."

"I don't want anything to happen to you."

Mike pulled her closer, "Nothing's going to happen to me, you know why?"

"No."

"Because I have this amazing girlfriend that puts me in my place when I'm being a workaholic."

She let out a giggle, pulling away to wipe the stray tears that had left her eyes. "I promise you," he said, "that tonight I will come home with you and you can watch me sleep all you want."

Mike was rewarded with another giggle, "Sounds like a plan."

When Mike got to his desk, he wasn't surprised to see twice as many files there as the other associates had, what did surprise him was the fact that there were two stacks of them. Harold had been walking by him and answered his unasked question, "The other pile is from yesterday, you weren't at your desk all day."

The blonde associate gave Mike a sad look knowing how much work he had to get through. Mike was such an idiot, yesterday he had been so concerned with completing the Roland Briefs and then going to the hearing with Harvey he never went to his desk.

He had a lot of work to do.

Mike hadn't slept in three days and he had twenty-four files to tackle, whether they were cases, or briefs, or research needed, he had to start, and on top of that he needed to find those accounts for Harvey. It was going to be a long day.

By the end of the day, the amount of red bull in his system could not have been healthy. Once he was in a groove, he had completed all his files by mid afternoon. He didn't bother delivering them to Louis, he didn't have the time. He needed to get on top of his work for Harvey, if Louis wanted his files so badly he could come and get them.

Not too long after Mike had finished all of his work, Louis came strolling into the bullpen, making a beeline straight to Mike's desk. "Mike," he called.

This grabbed a couple of the associates attention, including Kyle and Greg's, after hearing the tone Louis used. They wanted to see golden boy get berated.

"I cut you slack yesterday because I got you to proof the Roland Briefs, but today I expected all your files on my desk. Why aren't they done?"

Mike couldn't take it anymore, Louis never reprimanded any of the other associates because their work was a day or so late, majority of the time if it was completed in two days that was considered good but apparently the standards were different for Mike.

Louis was just like Harvey in that sense, making him feel like he was incompetent in completing tasks, even though he finished double the work in half the time. Well that was it, he was over it.

"You know what Louis," he started. "I did finish all of that work. I'm sorry completing twenty four different assignments in one morning is considered a sluggish pace for you, but I haven't slept for three days so I apologise if I was a bit slow."

In saying that, he dumped the large stack of files into Louis's hands and he couldn't help looking at his fellow associates. He could see many of them with wide eyes or mouths dropped, it was particularly gratifying to no longer see smug smirks on Kyle and Greg's faces. As much as they all liked to make fun of him being the 'golden boy', none of them knew how much work he did.

"Oh," Louis said, obviously seeing his mistake. "Well next time make sure they're on my desk."

With that as his exit line, Louis left the bullpen carrying the work Mike had completed that morning. Mike didn't bother listening to the whispers of the other associates, he still had to finish this for Harvey, and hearing them gossip about him was not going to make him any more productive.

Eventually, Mike found the accounts and got up to find Harvey. To his surprise there were a lot more associates still around at that time of night, usually many of them would have clocked off by then. But as he got up he couldn't help the feeling that a few of them were staring at him.

Ignoring the feeling of being watched, Mike found Donna at her desk. "It's about time," she said.

"He asked for me to find it today, how am I late?”

Donna rolled her eyes, "He said today not tonight."

Mike checked his watch, "It's only six, I would hardly consider that to be night."

"Get in there."

Mike took that as his sign to enter, when Harvey looked up from his computer he greeted him in a similar fashion to Donna, "Took you long enough."

Harvey stuck his hand out for Mike's findings, which the associate gladly handed him. "Now if that's all, I think I'm going to call it a night."

Harvey gave Mike a once over before sighing, "Fine, go home and rest but be sure to be on time tomorrow. We have a lot to do."

"Ay ay captain." Mike mock saluted causing Harvey to smirk, his boss seemed a lot more relaxed now that he had all that he needed to win the case. But his change in attitude last night hadn't been lost on Mike, as he exited Harvey's office, he stopped by Donna's desk.

"Donna?"

"Mhm?" She looked up from her keyboard.

"Do you know what Jessica said to him last night?"

Donna lifted an eyebrow, "I do."

"What did she say to him?"

She scoffed, "Now why would I tell you that?"

Mike shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, maybe given the fact he left fine and came back wanting to chop my head off. All I was asking for was one night to sleep."

Mike could see Donna's resolve fading, she saw his point. "Alright fine," she said, before quickly glancing back at Harvey who was too preoccupied in reading the files Mike had presented him with. "Tamworth has given the case to Cameron Dennis. That's why he was so mad at you for not wanting to go through the cases."

"I'm sorry, 'wanting' to go through the cases?"

She rolled her eyes at him, ignoring his remark, "The settlement meeting is tomorrow morning that's why he needed the evidence today."

"Why didn't he just tell me that?"

"Because he expects you to do what he says, he didn't like that you were defying him yesterday."

"I forgot that's how our relationship works, he gives me work and I just have to do it."

"I'm sorry pup but I'm afraid that is the case."

"I know, well have a good night. I'll see you in the morning."

Donna gave him a parting smile, "Bye."

Rachel had been thrilled when Mike had strolled passed her office at a reasonable time that night. They were going to meet at the elevators, all Mike needed to do was grab his bag.

As he made his way to his cubicle, he couldn't help but hear his name being called in the break room. As he got closer, he could distinguish the voices as his fellow associates. They were talking about him.  
"How the hell does Ross get through twelve files a day? I barely get through three."

"And he always has all that work from Harvey as well...my god, I'm surprised he hasn't collapsed."

"You know apparently he proofed the Roland Briefs in one day."

"No way, that would take me four days minimum."

"Surely he misses a lot of details if he goes through them that fast."

"Since Louis and Harvey continue to give him work, I doubt it."

Mike didn't want to hear them talk about him anymore. He never paraded his workload because he didn't want the attention, he had only said it to Louis that morning because he had been angry.

But hearing the shock from the other associates surprised him, surely they knew Harvey had hired him for a reason. Maybe they would even stop mocking him for being the 'golden boy'. That pleasant thought remained with him as he clasped his hand with Rachel's.

As soon as Mike had gotten home, he took a shower. He hadn't had one for days and he felt gross, by the time he was out, dinner was ready and after that he was struggling to keep his eyes open. He had kissed Rachel good night, leaving her to summarise notes from one of her lectures. 


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Mike woke to his phone ringing. As he went to open his eyes, he regretted it. The curtains were open, which meant Rachel was up, but that also meant it was harder to wake up. He slowly sat up and went to grab his phone just as it stopped ringing.

On the home screen it said: '3 missed calls Harvey Specter'. In seeing that his eyes widened and he rushed out of bed. He checked his bedside clock, it was 10 o'clock. He'd been sleeping for over twelve hours! Harvey was going to kill him.

Mike quickly shoved on a suit, grabbed his messenger bag and headed out. As he hailed his cab and hopped in, he noticed he'd received a text from Rachel that morning as well: 'Had a meeting with my professor early this morning, I'll see you at the firm later today.'

That was why he was late, Rachel usually woke him up nowadays. But he didn't have time to worry about that, because as he paid the cab driver, Harvey was calling him again. He was scared to answer it.

"Hello?"

"It's about god damn time! Where are you?"

"I'm in the lobby."

"Get to my office! Now!"

Harvey hung up. Mike stared at his phone, Harvey sounded beyond mad. And as the elevator climbed, he prayed that it would stall in hopes of avoiding his boss. Of course the heavens did not answer his prayers, because he was on the 50th floor in no time.

He walked down the hall and he could see Harvey pacing, Donna was already in his office, seemingly failing at calming him down. "Finally!" Harvey roared as Mike crossed the threshold of his office.

Upon seeing him, Donna exited the room, not wanting to be inside for the throw down. "I'm sorry I'm late, I-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses!" Harvey yelled, "You're supposed to be here when you're supposed to be here, what don't you understand about that?"

"I didn't do it on purpose-"

"I don't care. You missed the settlement meeting."

Oh no. Now Mike understood why Harvey was mad, he needed Mike there.

"Harvey it was a mistake, I'm sorr-"

"Stop apologising, I don't want to hear it. Our client wants to accept Tamworth's bullshit offer!”

"How is that my fault?" Mike was genuinely confused.

Harvey's glare seemed to somehow deepen, "They were worried about the new Infrastructure coding, but I couldn't reassure them because my associate who had read all about it wasn't there to back up my claims with the facts he had memorised."

Mike was lost for words. What was it about this case that had Harvey so unhinged? He didn't understand but he wasn't just going to stand there and get yelled at for sleeping in after pulling three all-nighters.

"You know what Harvey. Stop. I apologise for sleeping in and missing the meeting but I'm not gonna deny that I needed it. I've done all you've asked of me and more, yet you always complain about something. Considering you think I'm so invaluable maybe you can find yourself another associate!"

On that, Mike stormed out. He didn't want to be around Harvey, he just needed to be alone. So instead of heading to his desk, to listen to the other associates gossip or be greeted by another stack of files, he headed straight for the elevators.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel smiled, as she saw Mike waiting for her outside her lecture. "Miss your alma mater?"

Rachel always loved to joke about the fact that Mike also went to Columbia and not Harvard. He had managed to fake it for a while and majority of the firm still thought he was a Harvard graduate but he had attended Columbia.

He'd impressed Harvey so much in the interview, he'd been hired and when Jessica found out, she was too impressed by his success rate that she didn't want to let him go. So it was his dirty little secret that only a select few knew, because if word got out that Pearson Specter was allowing non-Harvard graduates to work there, like Mike and Rachel, it would taint their image.

"Can we get lunch?" Mike asked. Rachel didn't miss the seriousness etched on Mike's face, so nodded and clasped his hand, pulling him towards one of her favourite restaurants.

He was silent until they sat down, "What's going on?" she asked.

"It's Harvey."

"What did he do?"

Mike sighed, it was so complicated but he needed advice. "I don't understand why he is so hard on me. Whenever I screw up, he gets so angry even though if any other associate had to deal with the workload he gives, they would never meet his deadlines. I just don't get why he can never cut me any slack, doesn't he understand that I'm trying my best."

Rachel stared at her distressed boyfriend with concern, "You want to know what I think?"

"Please," Mike begged.

"I think you need to give him a chance to see what life is like without you so he can appreciate all that you do for him."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Work for someone else for a couple weeks, make him work for it."

Mike shook his head, "There's no way he'd allow that. If I ever prioritised other senior partner's work over his, he'd make me suffer ten fold."

Rachel sunk back in her chair slightly, he had a point. "What if you didn't just work for a senior partner?"

"What are you-" but Mike's eyes lit up as he realised where she was heading, "Do you mean work for Jessica?"

Rachel nodded triumphantly, "That's exactly what I mean. She has authority over Harvey, if she tells him you're going to be working for her exclusively for a few weeks, he can't do anything about it."

Mike's grin only seemed to grow at hearing Rachel's advice. "Do you really think she'd go for it?"

"I think if you explain the situation you're having with Harvey she'll be more than happy to help."


	5. Chapter 5

Apparently the rumours of Mike's little outburst had spread around the firm quickly. As he parted ways with Rachel and headed to the bullpen, there seemed to be a strange silence when he entered. On his way there, he had noticed a couple of people muttering but hadn't thought much of it.

When he reached his desk, he saw that he had another stack of twenty-four files on his desk. Biggest trust as soon as Louis finds out he can handle that much work he makes it the norm.

But before he could even be bothered with starting the work, he needed to talk to Jessica. He put his bag down at his cubicle and strode out of the room determined to get the managing partner of the firm on his side.

Mike took a deep breath and knocked before waiting to be beckoned inside, Jessica had looked up slightly surprised to see the second-year associate standing outside her door. "I don't know if you've heard about what happened this morning but-"

"I've heard," she said, dropping her pen and giving Mike her full attention.

"I was wondering if I could talk to you about that."

She raised an eyebrow, "Go on."

"I just want to tell you what happened and how we got there, because I need your advice. Afterwards, I'm going to ask you something and I'm going to need an answer before I leave." Jessica seemed to ponder what he was saying, before she nodded indicating for him to continue.

Mike went on to tell her all that had happened since the beginning of the week, specifically regarding Louis and Harvey's treatment of him as of late. He brought up the Tamworth case, the Roland Briefs and the stacks on his desk that seemed to be twice as big as the other associates.

He didn't say it in a way that was complaining, he said it in a way that showed his side of the story. And from what he could tell, Jessica was sympathising with him.

By the conclusion of his explanation, she said, "I know that Louis can be quite the slave driver but if you can handle the work I can't really object to him giving it to you. But regarding Harvey, I agree with you. He needs to have more patience with you. Honestly, both of them should. I will speak to them if you wish."

Mike was grateful to hear her say that, he had her on his side. "As much as I appreciate the offer for you to talk to them for me, I was hoping to make a larger statement."

Jessica smirked, she was curious, "And what would that be?"

Mike had nothing to lose, so he asked her, "How would you feel that I become your associate exclusively for a few weeks?"

Mike didn't need to explain the reasonings behind his request, he knew that Jessica knew why he was asking this. He wanted Harvey to see what it was like having an associate that couldn't handle the workload, he wanted Louis to not mistreat him just because he was 'Harvey's' associate.

Jessica's smirk never left her face while she thought of his proposal, but in the end she had an answer. "I think that is a great idea."

If Mike could have jumped up off of his chair and danced around he would have, but he decided to just settle for an ear splitting grin. "Plus," Jessica added, "I want to see what all the fuss is about. Time to prove your worth Mr Columbia."

Mike continued to smile, "Thank you so much Jessica, you won't regret it."

She nodded her head in acknowledgement, "I'm sure I won't, but since this was your idea. Do you want me to tell Harvey or are you going to do it?"

Mike knew she was challenging him, she wanted to know if he was going to fight the battle he had started, "I'll tell him."

"You'll start Monday."

Mike smiled at her response as he went to leave, today was Friday. It seemed Jessica was just as keen for this arrangement as he was. Unfortunately though, Mike's mood took a downturn when he caught Harvey's eye as he exited Jessica's office, but what was done was done. Even if his boss was coming over to apologise to Mike, Harvey would have to deal with it.

"Mike," Harvey started. "I need you to research into the senior executives of Burrow Books. They're being accused of underpaying their workers due to racist claims."

No apology, absolutely nothing. Harvey had just moved on as if nothing had happened. Well something had happened, but instead of telling him about Jessica and his new arrangement, Mike chickened out, "What about the Tamworth case?"

Harvey smirked, "Closed them this afternoon." Mike's eyebrows shot up mockingly, so it wasn't his fault, "Now get to work, I want that research on my desk before I leave tonight."

Knowing that it would be his last assignment for Harvey for the next couple weeks, Mike wanted to do it. Since he didn't start working for Jessica until Monday, he still had a job to do.

Mike walked back to his cubicle and set to work. He had lost most of his day but that wasn't going to be a good enough excuse to Louis or Harvey. Even though he had come in beyond late, there was no sly remark from Kyle or Greg. He had looked up at them expecting them to tease him but they didn't say anything.

By 7pm Mike had finished all the files Louis had wanted from him and had looked into half the executives for Harvey. To his surprise Rachel walked passed to see how he was going, "Hey," she mused.

Mike gave her a tired smile, "Hey."

"What did Jessica say?"

"She went for it."

"Oh my god. That's great Mike!" she cheered.

"I know."

Rachel's demeanour sobered slightly before asking, "What did Harvey say?"

Mike dropped his gaze from her's sheepishly, "I haven't told him yet."

"Mike," she placed her hands on her hips, "you have to tell him."

"I will. I will. I'll tell him when I give him the research he asked for."

"Fine," she conceded. "Anything I can do to help?"

"No, I'm almost done. It shouldn't be too much longer, but if you could take those to Louis," he said eyeing the stack of twenty-four files, "that would be amazing."

She looked at the stack and then back at Mike, "Only because I was going that way in the first place."

Mike laughed, "Yeah sure. I'll see you tonight at home. I won't be too late." Rachel gave him one more parting nod before taking the files and leaving the bullpen.

Another hour or so later, Mike had finished his work for Harvey and that meant he needed to talk to Harvey about Jessica. He was not looking forward to it.

Donna had already gone home for the night, so Mike walked straight into Harvey's office. "Good you're here," Harvey stated, looking up from his laptop but Mike was avoiding eye contact with him. "Give me the Burrow files."

Mike handed Harvey the files in his hands, finally looking up at the man. His boss was wearing a weary expression as he gazed at Mike, he could tell something was wrong.

"Was there something else you wanted to say?" Harvey asked, daring Mike to spit it out.

"Yes actually," he paused, "I need to talk to you about something."

Harvey disregarded the files and looked intently at Mike, "Go on."

Mike took a deep breath, "As of Monday I am going to be working for Jessica exclusively for a few weeks."

Harvey tilted his head to the side, "I'm sorry, what did you just say to me?"

"I'm no longer your associate."

Harvey let out a dry laugh, "Nice try kid but that's not how it works around here. You're my associate. You do whatever I say. You can’t just decide to stop working for me."

Mike wasn't enjoying the mocking tone Harvey was using, it just reenforced his need to have a break from him, "Actually I won't continue working for you. I've already spoken to Jessica and-"

"You spoke to Jessica?" Harvey had shot up from his seat, slamming his chair into the wall behind him. "You went to her first." Mike could see Harvey's jaw tightening, he was beyond mad.

"I needed to make sure she would allow me to work for her."

"Do you mean to tell me you asked to work with her?"

Mike gulped, he shouldn't have mentioned that, "Well...yes. I did."

"And why is that?" Mike could tell at this point Harvey wasn't thinking clearly. His boss obviously wasn't putting two-and-two together regarding his treatment of his associate.

"I want a break from you!"

Harvey seemed to straighten up after that, "Oh," he started, "have I been too hard on the puppy? Is he unable to keep up with all his work?"

Mike knew Harvey was mocking him, he knew his boss believed that by Monday morning Mike would have forgotten all about his little plan to run to Jessica, but the teasing tone was only fuelling Mike's anger.

"You can't be serious Harvey. I do three times the amount of work any of the other associates do!"

"Did you want a medal?"

"No, but some recognition would be nice," Mike admitted.

Harvey seemed to have relaxed slightly as he rounded his desk and stood directly in front of Mike, "So this is what this is all about. You want me to tell you how proud I am of you, is that it?" he mocked. "Well I'm sorry to break it to you kid, but I don't care. You do the work that I give you, no questions asked. You are my associate. You don't have a right to come in here and expect anything more than that."

"Are you sure about that? Because as of next week, I won't be working for you anymore. You'll have to deal with the other associates. Do you even know any of their names?"

Harvey was fuming, "I don't need to because you work for me."

"Not anymore," Mike was done with this conversation and stormed out.


	6. Chapter 6

Monday rolled around and Mike couldn't help but be nervous. Rachel had gone to law school that morning so he had to enter the office alone.

Jessica had emailed him over the weekend telling him she had updated Louis on his current predicament and that he was not to give him any work for the next couple weeks. When he had read that, Mike couldn't of helped but be relieved. Though he was confident in his decision, having Jessica backing him was comforting.

He had entered the lobby and was waiting for the elevator doors to close, when a manicured hand stopped it. Mike gulped when he saw Donna walk into the elevator. She had a calculating look in her eye, "Morning Mike," she chirped.

"Morning," he muttered.

"I'm surprised you're on time today. Any reason for that?"

Mike knew that she knew what was going on, though she wasn't there when the argument had taken place, she was Donna. That was reason enough to believe that she knew.

"Nothing too major."

She huffed at his response, "Okay, give it up. I heard about your argument with Harvey. Are you seriously working for Jessica now?"

Mike knew nothing got passed her. "Yes I'm working for her."

"Permanently?"

Mike shrugged, "Depends."

"On what?" she countered.

"If Harvey can deal working without me or not."

Donna raised an eyebrow at him, "I talked to Rachel, I know the real reason you're doing this."

Mike let out a long sigh, "Then why are you asking me? Surely you of all people can understand why?"

"I get it Mike. I know Harvey isn't always the easiest to work with but you have no idea how much he values what you do for him."

"Exactly! I have no idea! All he cares about is winning and he doesn't care if I have to jump through hoop after hoop to get his work done. He just expects me to do it."

This time it was Donna's turn to sigh, "I know it's hard Mike but he does care about you."

Mike scoffed at that, "He has a funny way of showing it."

"I respect your decision Mike," she said as the elevator doors opened. He wasn't expecting her to say that. The pair of them walked out, Mike following Donna, "But I'm going to warn you, he thinks you were just trying to get a rise out of him. He still thinks of you as his associate and I know for a fact he is waiting in his office expecting you to barge in with an apology."

"Well that's not going to happen." Mike was firm in his decision, "He doesn't deserve one."

Donna nodded in agreement, "Just don't make him suffer for too long. As much as he hates to admit it, he needs you."

Mike could see how torn she was; she cared about Harvey but she also cared about Mike. It was hard for her seeing them fighting.

"I know Donna. I know." As he turned to leave and head to Jessica's office for his first assignment he had a thought, "And good luck with dealing with him today. I'm sorry you have to."

Donna laughed, "Oh don't worry hun, I've dealt with far worse." At that she strutted away, towards Harvey's office, while Mike headed to Jessica's.

It was official. Mike got his work directly from Jessica now. She had asked him to research into the opposing party of a multi-million dollar merger she was overseeing, as well as drafting lawsuits and writing the contract by-laws for the new client she was about to sign. It was a lot to do, but nothing he couldn't handle.

By late morning, he walked into her office carrying all he had found on the merger as well as the six lawsuits she had asked him to draw up. He had knocked on her door, excited to give her his work. "Here is the research on the merger," he sat handing her two folders, "and here are the lawsuits you wanted."

Jessica looked up at him, slightly taken aback. "And the by-laws?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mike's eyes widened, he didn't think she'd need them so quickly. He was about to start them as soon as he got back to his desk, "Oh Jessica, I didn't mean to-I just wanted to give you-"

She cut him off with the raise of her hand, a smile etched on her face. "I was just teasing you Mike. This is great work, I can see why you're such big talk amongst the senior partners."

That surprised Mike, "The senior partners talk about me?"

"Oh yes," she nodded. "Louis allocates the work to the associates and all the partners beg for you to do theirs. It's actually quite funny."

"Wait really? I thought Louis just handed me all his work."

Jessica shook her head, "No, you've been doing work for all the partners since you got here. They've all been trying to find the time when you'd get sick of Harvey and work for them."

"Yeah right."

"Believe what you want to believe."

That caused a thought to pop into his head, "So how do the senior partners feel about me working for you?"

Jessica laughed at his remark, "They don't have a say, but I'll admit some of them seemed eager to see how Harvey would fare without you."

"That's a bit harsh," Mike admitted.

"If you think so, you're more than welcome to go back to working for him."

"No, no, I'm good. I'll have the by-laws on your desk by the end of the day."

As he turned to leave he heard Jessica mutter something that he was sure was not meant for his ears, "At this rate, you'll probably have them done by lunch."

Mike smirked at what she said, he think he'd enjoy working for Jessica.

It was mid afternoon when Mike finished writing up the by-laws, he went to Jessica's office to hand them to her. She was on the phone when he walked in, so he waited for her to be done.

"What do you have for me?" she asked.

"Drafted and completed."

Jessica took the folder he had just placed on her desk and looked it over, "Excellent. I'll take it to my client tomorrow."

Mike nodded, waiting for her to give him his next assignment but she didn't, "Do you need me to do anything else?"

"I'll be honest with you Mike, I wasn't expecting you to get through all this work today. Most associates would have taken a couple days to do all this."

"So there's nothing more I can do?" he asked her, disbelief written all over his face.

"I didn't say that..." A smirk rested on Jessica's face, "I have plenty of work for you to do."

Mike went passed Rachel's office but she wasn't there. He sighed and headed back to the associates bullpen, Jessica had given him quite the task. He had to summarise all the cases at the firm, proof the Highland Briefs and the Grinch-kin Briefs, and she needed him to go through precedents to allow her to attain sealed documents. He had a week.

Wanting to impress his new boss, Mike had set to work. He wasn't used to having deadlines so far away, he liked it. It didn't make him slack off, but knowing he wasn't going to get yelled in the near future was a nice side to working for Jessica.

The sun was just setting when Mike saw Rachel coming towards him, she had an alarmed expression on her face. "Wow what's wrong?"

"Donna just came to my office. Harvey wants to see you."

"Oh god, this can't be good."

"I'll come with you?"

Mike shook his head, "No. No. It's fine. I'll see you later."

She watched him walk away as he headed down the hall to Harvey's office, Donna was sitting by her desk looking at him with wide eyes. "What's going on?" Mike asked her.

"He's in denial."

"About me?"

She nodded, "Yes. Even after I told him about our conversation he didn't buy it."

"So why does he want to see me?"

"Just get in there. The sooner the better."

Mike looked at Donna suspiciously, "Donna."

"Just go inside Mike, I'm not talking about this anymore."

Mike gave her one final look before entering Harvey's office. When the older lawyer heard the door to his office open, he looked up. "There you are," he said. "What did you find in the Burrow employment contracts?"

Harvey was looking at him expectantly but Mike had no idea what he was talking about, "I'm sorry? Burrow employment contracts?"

Harvey nodded, "Yes, I put them on your desk this morning. What did you find?"

Mike tried to remember the state his desk had been in that morning, there had been no files on his desk. "Harvey, there were no files on my desk."

"Of course there were, I put them there myself. Now stop kidding around, I need to know what you found. I have a meeting with them tomorrow."

Before Mike could think of what to say next, Kyle was bursting through Harvey's office door. "What do you want?" Harvey spat.

Kyle looked between Harvey and Mike, "Donna told me you wanted to see me."

Harvey's eyes left Kyle and ventured to where his secretary sat. He was glaring, "Well I don't, now get out."

"She said you wanted the Burrow contracts."

Harvey's menacing glare was now set on Mike, "You pawned off my case to him. What is wrong with you? I asked you to do it."

"I never pawned off anything to him, they were never on my desk Harvey!"

Harvey was not in the mood for Mike's behaviour so he turned back to Kyle, "Okay, what did you find?"

Kyle scratched the back of his head, avoiding eye contact with Harvey. Mike recognised the body language, because he had done it countless times before, "I've only gotten through a third of them and I haven't found-"

Harvey cut him off, "Do you mean to tell me, you came bursting in here to tell me you don't even have anything for me?"

"Well..." Kyle didn't know what to say and looked at Mike pleadingly.

"Are those the contracts?" Harvey asked, indicating to the two boxes in Kyle's hands.

"Yes."

"Hand them to Mike and get out of my office."

Kyle let his mouth drop slightly before shoving the boxes into Mike's grasp and scurrying out of his office. "Now," Harvey said turning to Mike, "go through them yourself and find me something."

Mike was staring at him in shock, Donna was right. He was in denial.

When Mike hadn't moved from his spot, Harvey snapped, "What are you still doing here? I expect those files on my desk by morning so you better get started."

"Harvey..." Mike started, "I'm not your associate anymore. I work for Jessica."

"Oh not this again?" Harvey said exasperated, "Get over it Mike!"

"No Harvey, I'm not just going to 'get over it'."

Mike placed the boxes down, he had no intention of going through them for him. If he was going to make his point, then he couldn't help him.

"You can't be serious? Since when do you care how much work I give you," Harvey tried to reason.

"That was never the problem Harvey. My problem was your unreasonable expectations. I need you to see that."

"So you're mad that you couldn't get a good night's sleep? Grow up and deal with it."

"No Harvey, you deal with it. I'm working for Jessica until she says so, so you need to find another associate."

"I hired you!" he bellowed, "You work for me!"

Before Mike could yell back at him, Donna walked in to try and defuse the situation. "Harvey, Jessica said that the reason Kyle had those contracts was because she had told the associates if any work that wasn't hers was placed on Mike's desk, the other associates had to take care of it."

"I never agreed to this."

"Well you need to bring that up with her."

"You know what," Harvey said, "I think I will." And he stormed out of the office.

Mike and Donna exchanged worried looks before following him down the hall and towards Jessica's office. The managing partner did not seem at all surprised when the three of them burst into her office.  
"Jessica," Harvey started.

"Yes Harvey?"

"What are you trying to pull, making Mike your personal associate?"

"I'm not trying to pull anything," she stated. "The kid came to me and asked to work for me. Why would I object to that?"

"Because he is my god damn associate."

Jessica shook her head, "Not according to him. I don't want you burning out our best associates Harvey, otherwise they'll all leave and the future of the firm will be in jeopardy. You know, the firm that your name happens to be on?"

Harvey was fuming, "Why didn't you run it by me? If that was all it was, I would have eased up on the kid."

"Well now you don't have to worry about it, I've taken him off your hands for the next few weeks. It'll force you to get more acquainted with the other associates."

Harvey didn't seem to have an argument to dispute that, so he let out one more dramatic huff before leaving Jessica's office, Donna right on his tail.

"Thank you Jessica," Mike sheepishly stated once the others had gone.

Jessica gave him a respectful nod, "We had a deal. I knew he would be upset, but this is an opportunity. If he truly wants you back, he'll get his act together."

"You think so?"

"I know so."


	7. Chapter 7

It had only been two weeks since Harvey had to suck it up and use other associates, and from Mike's perspective it was very amusing. Harvey was going though an associate a day at this rate, none of them were able to keep up with his outrageous demands.

Every time he would stroll into the bullpen he would look at Mike, who would quickly scurry back to doing his work, and then he would approach the associate he had assigned work to before yelling at them for being incompetent and slow.

It was quite the show. Every argument resulted in Harvey coming over to Mike, trying to get him to do his work. "Come on Mike this case is right up your alley, it even involves bike riders." As the days had gone on, Harvey's reasons to persuade him were slipping.

"No Harvey, get one of the other associates to do it."

The playful grin that occupied his face would fall unceremoniously and Harvey would dump the files on another helpless victim's desk who would undoubtably incur the wrath of Harvey Specter the very next day.

Mike wasn't complaining with his current situation, Jessica had been quite impressed at the speed and efficiency he worked at. All the jobs she would ask him to do in the morning, would usually be done by that night or on her desk in the morning before she got in.

Mike was enjoying working for the managing partner because he was finally getting sleep every night and the bonus was that since Louis thought he'd dropped Harvey, it was clear to Mike that he was trying to convince him to become his associate instead of running back to Harvey.

This only increased Harvey's anger, Mike knew he was struggling and as much as he wanted to help him and cave, he knew that he shouldn't. If he caved every time Harvey asked him to do something, there would be no hope for Mike to ever get him to see things from his perspective.

Now the other associates had a little taste at what Mike endured everyday. He had to admit, it was somewhat fun for him to see his fellow associates struggle. What he had found even more amazing, is that as Harvey went through more and more of the associates, the others seemed to respect him more; even Greg and Kyle had reframed from picking on him.

But that wasn't even the best part about all this, what Mike found the most amusing was having the associate doing Harvey's work that day, beg him for help. But even better than that was listening to them after Harvey had disregarded them.

Wendy, Harvey's most recent victim, had bumped into him in the break room. "Seriously Mike," she had said, "how did you put up with him? He asks for the impossible to be done yet I don't think I ever saw him yell at you once."

Mike was glad he had been turned around at that point pouring his coffee, because otherwise she would have seen him blush. "I mean," Wendy continued, "he asked me to find a loophole in the by-laws of his Burrows case and he gave me the afternoon to read through 1000 pages. I couldn't believe it, by the time he came in that morning I hadn't found him anything and had only read half."

Mike couldn't help but think back to when Harvey had made him read through 1500 pages of by-laws for his McKernon Motors deal and he had read through it in 6 hours. Maybe Harvey was finally learning to appreciate Mike's skill.

"Here is the research you wanted on Avoca Aviation," Mike said, placing the file on Jessica's desk.

His boss took the file and read the contents, "Good job Mike."

Mike nodded at her in recognition and turned to leave but she stopped him, "Before you go," she continued, "I'd like you to take a seat." Mike looked at her skeptically, it was uncommon for her to ask him to sit down. Like many of his superiors she just told him what to do, there weren’t many pleasantries.

He waited for her to continue, “I think it’s time.”

“Time?” Mike questioned.

“Time you go back to Harvey.”

Mike gazed at her, his mouth parting in surprise. "But," he started, "I-I thought you wanted to wait for the six week period to be done." It had only been four weeks, and as much as Mike liked working for Harvey, he'd really enjoyed his time with Jessica.

The last thing he wanted was for Jessica to be sending him back because he'd done mediocre work and just wanted to pawn him off back to Harvey.

Jessica considered him carefully, "I know the original period was six weeks but I'm pretty sick at watching Harvey sulk around, aren't you?"

Mike couldn't help himself, but he laughed. And he knows it probably wasn't the most professional thing to do in that situation but the image of the great Harvey Spectre sulking, caught him off guard.

"Sulking, really? I'd call it a Harvey pity party."

Jessica cracked a smile at that, "Fair point. But with that being said, how do you feel about going back to work with him? Because as good as the two of you work together, if you're uncomfortable to return, I'll make other arrangements."

Mike couldn't believe his ears. Jessica Pearson was willing to put Mike's needs above Harvey's? 

The shock forced him to take a few moments before replying. "I don't think that will be necessary. I liked-like working with Harvey. I just want to make sure I have someone in my corner if this happens again."

"I think that's fair. So do you want me to tell him or are you happy to?" Once again, Jessica was challenging him. Seeing if he had the balls to follow this through. 

"I'll tell him," Mike said, getting up from his seat.

Jessica regarded him from another moment, before continuing on with her work. A clear dismissal.

Mike turned on his heels ready to head out the door but stopped himself as his hand hovered over the handle. 

"Jessica," he started, turning around. "Thank you." The managing partner graced him with a very rare genuine smile before nodding and allowing him to leave with a sense of pride.

I guess it’s time to see Harvey. 

It was only mid-afternoon, so he wasn’t surprised to see Harvey behind his desk. As he approached he was greeted by a very friendly Donna.

“Is he free?” He asked her.

Donna gave him a smile, “He is for you.”

Mike gave her a sympathetic look before taking a breath, steeling himself and walking inside.

“Donna, I told you I didn’t want to be disturb-“ Harvey looked up, stopping himself short, his angry eyes easing slightly when he saw Mike.

“Oh, sorry,” Mike said, awkwardly. He didn’t really know how to approach this conversation. “I can go if this is a bad time.”

Harvey’s face was blank of emotion. His piercing gaze making Mike feel uncomfortable. “No, it’s okay,” his boss finally said. “Did you want something?”

He did want something. He wanted Harvey to apologise and for them to go back to normal, but Mike knew better than to get an apology from Harvey Specter. 

Mike was looking at his shoes, not brave enough to look Harvey in the eye as he spoke. “Well I-I’ve been thinking and if it’s alright with you, I’d like to come back.”

Mike forced himself to look up, and the shock on Harvey’s face was obvious, “As much as I am relieved to hear that, how do I know you won’t just go crawling back to Jessica if your workload gets too hard.”

Mike knew his boss wasn’t going to make this easy, but did he really have to be such a dick. “It won’t happen again.”

Harvey raised an eyebrow, “And how can I be sure of that?”

“It won’t happen again because I’ve made my point.”

“Your point? And what was that?”

Mike smirked to himself, “That as hard as it may be for you to admit, you need me.”

Harvey scoffed, “I don’t need you, I handled myself without you these past few weeks that you very much.”

“Oh is that so? Well if that’s the case, I can go back to Jessica since I’m so replaceable.” Mike turned to leave, trying to put some truth to his statement.

“No, Mike wait.” Mike turned to see Harvey now sitting on the edge of his desk. “Stay.”

Mike couldn’t help but smile. It was very rare to see Harvey be so open with him, and he was going to milk this moment for all that it was worth. “Why?”

Harvey let out a long sigh, “Because you’re right. The other associates are hopeless idiots, I can barely tolerate you, so they were unbearable.”

It wasn’t exactly what he wanted to hear, but it was a step in the right direction. “So does that mean, you finally realise how unobtainable your expectations are?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that. Majority of the time you met them,” Harvey admitted. And Mike couldn’t help but drop his jaw in surprised. Was Harvey actually admitting he did good work?

“I may have met them majority of them, but I was slowly killing myself in the process.”

“Yeah,” Harvey laughed sadly, “I guess I was a little harsh, but please know that it wasn’t in spite of you. I wanted you to do well.”

“Oh you wanted me to do well?” Mike asked, “So the fact that it made you look super good to the other senior partners was never part of it?”

Harvey smirked, Mike knew when to call him on his bullshit. “Only a small part of it.”

The two looked at each other, seeming to come to the same conclusion but Harvey still had to ask. He needed the confirmation. “So you’re back?”

Mike smiled, “I’m back.”


End file.
